The Helice at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

THIS TRIP IS NOT CURRENTLY SCHEDULED
Over the years, Amy has developed and operated trips to a variety of destinations including this one, but not all trips are offered every year. If you are interested in joining a scheduled departure of this trip in the future, please send us an email and let us know. Click to send us an email or use the form at the bottom of this page.

We can organize and operate this trip as a private group departure with a minimum group size of 8 persons.
Start organizing your private New York Art adventure here.

Best time to travel: October for early fall weather
Best gateway city: New York!

Immerse yourself in the cultural richness of New York, one of the world’s great centers for art. Experience the Metropolitan Museum of Art, recipient of a “Billion Dollar Gift” from Leonard A. Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune, who recently donated 78 Cubist artworks to the Met. An exhibition featuring these works is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014. Savor the vision of sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney who began purchasing American art in 1907. She offered her collection with an endowment to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1920s. When the offer was refused, she set up her own museum. The resulting Whitney Museum is now regarded as “the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States.” Step into the “Gilded Age” mansions of J. Pierpont Morgan and Henry Clay Frick, and enjoy the rich collections displayed in their former homes. Travel from Manhattan to Brooklyn and Queens, two of the five boroughs that united to form New York City in 1898. The Brooklyn Museum, begun in 1823, is “one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country.” Select from its renowned collections of American, Native American, Asian, Egyptian, African, and Islamic art. Most of the collection is beautifully displayed as part of a vast multi-year program currently underway to re-install the museum’s permanent collection. From Brooklyn, travel to Queens to make a pilgrimage to the studio museum of Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Our New York art feast culminates at the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Amy will add a special walking tour, short introductory talks, special meals and bonus visits to relatively unknown art venues as extras to this art tour.

Day 1: Masterpieces of the “Museum Mile” – The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum
Overnight in New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the great art museums of the world. Its collections span five thousand years and include art from throughout the world. Begun in 1870, the museum now houses over two million works of art including the Havemeyer collection.  The Metropolitan Museum is “second only to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris in the area of 19th century French paintings, in large part because of the Havemeyers.” Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer’s advisor was the artist Mary Cassatt whom she met in Paris in 1874. With Cassatt’s advice, Havermeyer was able to purchase art by Degas, Pissarro, and Monet. (Your guide, Amy Boyce Osaki, did her undergraduate honors thesis on American collectors of French Impressionist Art including the Havemeyers.) In addition, the Met has recently re-installed their galleries of European Old Masters art from thirteenth to early nineteenth centuries, and the new Lauder collection exhibition is scheduled to be open. This afternoon, continue our art feast at the nearby Whitney Museum which exhibits the entire range of twentieth century American art. Begun by an artist, the Whitney was the first museum dedicated to the work of living American artists. The museum has received major works from the estates of artists Edward Hopper and Reginald Marsh. Salute the Whitney Museum in its stunning Marcel Breuer building. In 2015 the Whitney will move to its new building in New York’s Meatpacking District.

The Main Lobby of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Day 2: The Mansions – Gems of the Gilded Age
Overnight in New York
Today, slow down and step into the past in the luxurious mansions of two of New York’s art collectors: J Pierpont Morgan and Henry Clay Frick. At the Frick Collection, masterpieces of European painting are exhibited in sixteen galleries in Frick’s mansion between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue. Frick’s collection includes art by Fragonard, Holbein, Titian, El Greco, Constable, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. Vermeer’s Lady with Her Maidservant Holding a Letter is the last painting purchased by Frick; it’s one of three Vermeers in the collection. After lunch, enjoy the 1902 palazzo designed to hold the collection of billionaire J. Pierpont Morgan. His study and library recently re-opened after a fabulous restoration. The marble, murals, textiles, and chandeliers glow! Many of Morgan’s favorite objects and his extraordinary collection of rare books and manuscripts are on display. To prepare for your visit, enjoy a virtual visit now courtesy of the Google Art Project. This evening is on your own. A list of concerts or plays that you may wish to add to your New York art trip will be sent with the pre-trip materials.

Lady with her Maidservant Holding a Letter, Frick Collection.

Day 3: Brooklyn and Queens
Overnight in New York
In 1898, the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island) were consolidated into the city of New York. Today, a thirty minute journey takes us from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Begin at the Brooklyn Museum, one of the largest and oldest art museums in the country. The Brooklyn Museum traces its origins back to 1823 when the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library was founded to educate young tradesmen. (Walt Whitman would later become one of the institution’s librarians.) Housed in a 560,000 square foot Beaux-Arts building, the Brooklyn Museum’s vast collections range from ancient to contemporary art and include major exhibits of Egyptian, Native-American, American, African, and Asian art. After an introductory group tour you’ll have time to return to the galleries to further explore your favorites. If you wish, join Amy in the “American Identities” galleries and view the newly installed American collection with art by Thomas Eakins, Louis Comfort Tiffany, George Segal, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Albert Bierstadt, and Georgia O’Keefe. This afternoon, join Amy on a pilgrimage to the Noguchi Museum in Queens. This museum was founded and designed by the internationally-renowned Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) for the display of what he considered to be representative examples of his life’s work. The Museum is housed in a converted industrial building and is connected to a building and interior garden of Noguchi’s design. The Noguchi Museum itself is thought by some to be among the artist’s greatest works. Tonight is another evening on your own. Consider another performance, or select from one of the many nearby restaurants mentioned in the pre-trip materials.

Albert Bierstadt’s A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Brooklyn Museum.

Day 4: The Guggenheim and Museum of Modern Art
Overnight in New York
Begin your day in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum well-known for its distinctive Frank Lloyd Wright “inverted ziggurat” design. Starting at the top floor of the Guggenheim Museum, feast your eyes on an extraordinary collection of modern and contemporary art as you begin your spiraling descent through Wright’s masterful museum design. View masterpieces by Cezanne, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, and Van Gogh all of which were originally part of the Thannhauser collection begun in Munich in 1909. Continue through the Panza Collection featuring art by Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, and Bruce Nauman. Recall Solomon Guggenheim’s niece Peggy Guggenheim, whose collection in Venice is housed in the sister museum of the New York museum. (The Guggenheim Museum also has branches in Bilbao and Abu Dhabi!) After lunch, plunge into the exquisite collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), “the world’s largest and most inclusive collection of modern painting and sculpture” with over 3,600 works from the late nineteenth century to the present. From the fifth floor down, MOMA provides a sublime summary of major art movements and arts starting in 1890 (Matisse and Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso, Duchamp and Kandinsky, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera) and continuing into the mid-twentieth century with art by Pollock, Rauschenberg, and Warhol  The museum’s collections culminate with art from the 1980s to the present including works by Kiki Smith, Gilbert & George, and Jeff Koons. Digest the riches of our New York art feast over a farewell dinner this evening.

Vincent van Gogh’s Snow-covered Fields at Arles, Thannhauser Collection, Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Departure Day
Transfer on your own to the airport for your onward connections.

 

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Renoir’s Mer et Bateaux, 1883 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Photo credit).